NPR — How The CIA Overthrew Iran's Democracy In 4 Days

On Aug. 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

1952: Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.Keystone/Getty Images
The documents provided details of the CIA's plan at the time, which was led by senior officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Over the course of four days in August 1953, Roosevelt would orchestrate not one, but two attempts to destabilize the government of Iran, forever changing the relationship between the country and the U.S. In this episode, we go back to retrace what happened in the inaugural episode of NPR's new history podcast, Throughline....

NPR
How The CIA Overthrew Iran's Democracy In 4 Days

Lawrence Wu and Michelle Lanz

Matias Vernengo — On Venezuela, Democracy, Violence and Neoliberalism

The question then is how much of the push to limits to the power of the legislative assembly dominated by the opposition, and how much of the political repression (including the treatment of opposition leaders, but also the police violence) results from the very violent and anti-democratic push from the opposition itself, that has tried to bring down the government since the very beginning (including a failed coup attempt in 2002). And this is also a valid concern that many (almost all the mainstream media) on the left seem to forget. I can’t honestly respond. But I can provide a perspective, based on my understanding of the Argentine and Brazilian cases that are closer to my experience.

Naked Keynesianism
On Venezuela, Democracy, Violence and Neoliberalism

Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

See also

Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher of Drexel University analyzes the latest developments in Venezuela, including a new UN human rights report, US sanctions, and the begrudging admission by President Maduro's foes that he still has popular support

TRNN
UN Human Rights Report on Venezuela Ignores Opposition Violence

Pepe Escobar — A coup in the House of Saud?

Gives "MBS" new meaning. It's no longer mortgage backed security but Mohammad bin Salman.

But just as MBS were involved in the global financial crisis that began with the housing bubble in the US; so too, Mohammad in Salman is poised to initiate a global political crisis. Pepe Escobar explains.

Asia Times
A coup in the House of Saud?

Pepe Escobar

The New Cold War — Academia.edu: Ivan Katchanovski, Interview with Telepolis magazine (Germany) Concerning New Revelations in the Maidan Massacre Investigation.

Ivan Katchanovski PhD is a researcher and lecturer at the School of Political Studies of the University of Ottawa. The English text of the above interview is published online here on Academia.edu. The original in German is here.

Interviewer: Can you give a very short summary of your theory about the sniper-killings on 20th February in Kiev?

IK: My academic study of the Maidan massacre concludes that this mass killing was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. Unreported revelations from the Maidan massacre trial and the investigations by the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine, such as forensic ballistic and medical reports, testimonies of eyewitnesses in the investigation documents, newly released videos, and court rulings concerning investigations of the far right involvement in the Maidan massacre, corroborated major findings of my study.

I presented an expanded and updated version of my Maidan massacre paper at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in San Francisco in September 2015. This paper is freely downloadable without any registration from the Social Sciences Research Network and APSA conference websites, and it is also available on my Academia and Researchgate websites. My chapter summarizing the Maidan massacre study is scheduled for publication on February 11, 2016 in a Routledge book edited by two Canadian political scientists. My article, which includes examination of the role of the Maidan massacre in escalation of the conflict in Ukraine into a civil war in Donbas and subsequent Russian military interventions, is forthcoming in a special issue of a British refereed journal concerning the conflict in Ukraine.

The New Cold War

Academia.edu: Ivan Katchanovski, Interview with Telepolis magazine (Germany) Concerning New Revelations in the Maidan Massacre Investigation.

ht Johnson's Russia List

Robert Parry — Phony ‘Corruption’ Excuse for Ukraine Coup

Exchanging one set of corrupt oligarchs for another. But these are "our" oligarchs.

Consortium News
Phony ‘Corruption’ Excuse for Ukraine Coup

Robert Parry

James Petras — Brazil: The Billion Dollar Coup

Introduction: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office through a well-organized, carefully planned operation among the corrupt Brazilian political elite, closely linked to the stock-market, financial institutions and foreign energy companies.

This ‘legislative coup d’état ‘eliminated the democratically-elected ‘political intermediaries’ and installed a regime directly controlled by the CEO’s of leading multi-nationals. The corporate composition of the post-coup regime insured there would be a radical restructuring of the Brazilian economy, with a massive shift from wage support, social spending and public ownership toward profits, a foreign capital take-over of strategic sectors and foreign-domestic elite dominance over the entire economy. 

This paper will describe the socio-economic dynamics of the coup and its aftermath, as well as the strategy and program that Brazil’s new rulers will pursue. In the second half of the paper, we will discuss the Workers Party regimes’ policies (under Lulu and Rousseff) that prepared the political and economic ground-work for the right-wing seizure of power…

Probably more like a trillion than a billion. This is a grab of Brazil's resources that belong to the people of Brazil by a comprador government to turn over to transnational corporations (read "to the US elite").

The ‘coup’ was no ’secretive conspiracy’ - it was an overt, direct capitalist seizure of power. Once installed, it proceeded to dismantle the public sector economy and transfer the jewels of Brazil’s economy to foreign multi-nationals.

James Petras Website
Brazil: The Billion Dollar Coup
James Petras | Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

See also

Counterpunch
What is a Coup? Analysing the Brazilian Impeachment Process
Aline Piva and Frederick B. Mills

Matias Vernengo — The Mediatic-Parliamentary Coup in Brazil

President Dilma Rousseff was finally toppled down today. Yes, it's a coup, different in nature to the previous ones (last in Brazil was in 1964), but with the same consequences. I have discussed the nature of the process here, here, here, and here (this last more on the economy, from last year) before. It is a coup that has received discrete support from the US government, by the way, as much as the elected neoliberal government of Macri in Argentina (Obama visited the latter, a government that basically tries to vindicate the last and genocidal dictatorship in Argentina).…

Note that the worse that can actually be said, and it was repeated ad nauseamby the opposition, is that she lied during the campaign. And she did. She promised a government against bankers, and for the people, with expansion of social expenditures, and did a u-turn, and delivered the neoliberal policies that the opposition was requesting.…

Naked Keynesianism
The Mediatic-Parliamentary Coup in Brazil
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

Rusvesna — Glazyev: Ukraine under US Occupation, Gov't not legit

Sergey Glazyev is an advisor to President Putin, co-founder of the Rodina Party, and a former member of the State Duma. Glazyev is also on the Supervisory Board of Katehon Think Tank, alongside Alexander Dugin. Katehon exclusively employs the Fort Russ team for line and copy-editing for their English language portal, and consulting on matters of US internal political culture

Advisor to President Vladimir Putin, the academic Sergey Glazyev gives an exclusive interview to the website "Rusvesna" Dear Sergey, what economic measures can be used by Russia to force Ukraine and the world to reject military adventures against Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea?

- First you need to call a spade a spade: in Ukraine there is no legitimate authority; its territory is occupied by the United States; neo-Nazis were appointed by them to commit crimes against humanity, genocide against the Russian people. Then they proceed against the people of Ukraine with war crimes and political repression: we must create an international tribunal to investigate the crimes committed by the Nazis, who so far are without punishment.

We have to convince the international community that they are dealing with an attempt to restore a Nazi regime in the Ukraine, whose leaders declared themselves successors of Nazi collaborators.…

Fort Russ
Glazyev: Ukraine under US Occupation, Gov't not legit

Rusvesna 

Translated by: J. Flores 

Vladimir Rodzianko — Ron Paul says ‘CIA involved’ in government overthrow in Ukraine, war brewing over Crimea (VIDEO)

Yes, Ron Paul is still in the picture.

The Duran
Ron Paul says ‘CIA involved’ in government overthrow in Ukraine, war brewing over Crimea (VIDEO)
Vladimir Rodzianko

Felipe Rezende — Minsky Meets Brazil — Part 1

This series will discuss at length the underlying forces behind Brazil’s current crisis.

New Economic Perspectives
Minsky Meets Brazil — Part 1

Felipe Rezende

Tom Winter — Erdogan attacks in all directions: US, EU, Italy...

Turkey is a geopolitical pivot point. Feeling betrayed, the president of Turkey can say what he wants to. Erdogan is on the warpath.

Fort Russ
Erdogan attacks in all directions: US, EU, Italy...
Tom Winter

Patrick Cockburn — Turkey, once the great hope of the Middle East, is left weak and unstable

This is a couple of days old but it is still highly relevant and explains the depth of the attempted coup. It also account for why Erdogan and his party are so ripped at the US. Had the coup succeeded, Fethullah Gülen would almost have certainly replaced Erdogan, and Erdogan would now be dead. Erdogan doubtlessly thinks that this plot was CIA run.

The Independent.
Turkey, once the great hope of the Middle East, is left weak and unstable

Patrick Cockburn

ht Chuck Spinney at The Blaster

John Helmer Strengthening Russo-Turkish Alliance Stokes US-Russian Cold War

A very informative interview about a possible geopolitical realignment in the making.

TRNN
Strengthening Russo-Turkish Alliance Stokes US-Russian Cold War

Sharmini Peries interviews John Helmer

Middle East Eye — Turkish fury after top US general voices concerns over post-coup relations

Turkish president says US Centcom chief is 'taking side of coup plotters' after raising concerns about future of US-Turkey military cooperation.

The view of the pundits is that Erdogan is conducting a purge to seize near dictatorial power. Another read is that Erdogan is convinced that the coup was a US-based attempt to topple him and he is protecting himself by purging all even remotely connected.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused a top US general of being on the side of Turkey's coup plotters after commenting that the country's turmoil could downgrade military cooperation with Washington.

"You are taking the side of coup plotters instead of thanking this state for defeating the coup attempt," Erdogan said in angry remarks at a military centre in Golbasi outside Ankara, where air strikes left dozens dead during the failed putsch on 15 July.

"You reveal yourself with your remarks. We will not play your game!" he said.…

Middle East Eye

Turkish fury after top US general voices concerns over post-coup relations

Also

If so, they sure bungled the job.

A Turkish prosecutor has claimed that the CIA and FBI provided training for the followers of powerful US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for the coup attempt earlier this month.

The indictment, prepared by the Edirne Public Prosecutor’s office and accepted by the local Second Heavy Penal Court, seeks the harshest possible punishment for 43 suspects that have allegedly been linked to the failed coup attempt on July 15, including the coup’s supposed mastermind, Fethullah Gulen, the arch-nemesis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The prosecutor said on Thursday that members of what it describes as “the Fethullah Terrorist Organization” were trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“The CIA and FBI provided training in several subjects to the cadre raised in the culture centers belonging to the Gulen movement. The operations carried out by prosecutors and security officials during the Dec. 17 process can be taken as a good example of this,” the document says, referring to a high profile corruption probe that targeted senior government officials between December 17 and December 25 of 2013, as reported by the Turkish Hurriyet daily.

The investigation affected many officials linked to the Turkish Cabinet, which was headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan at that time. Erdogan, who is now Turkey’s president, called it “a judicial coup” attempt, while accusing Gulen and his movement of orchestrating it with the help of some “foreign forces.”

The indictment states that Gulen loyalists received US training and infiltrated judicial and security institutions.

RT
Turkish prosecutor claims CIA, FBI trained coup plotters

 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, is rushing to Turkey on an unexpected visit, after President Erdogan’s allies directly accused the US of being behind the failed coup attempt in the country and have begun purging members of the Turkish military with ties to the United States.

Sputnik
Top US General Rushes to Turkey Amid Accusations US Plotted Coup

The Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) General Joseph Votel denied claims on involvement in the recent unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey.

US Central Command Chief Denies Any Role in Turkey Coup Attempt

German former CDU politician and Vice-President of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Willy Wimmer told Sputnik Deutschland that he fears NATO involvement in the downing of Russia's Su-24 bomber over Syria last November.… 

The downing had been interpreted as a unilateral decision by Turkey, but Willy Wimmer contends that in fact, NATO and Saudi forces were involved in the incident.

"According to my information, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from the US and Saudi Arabia were involved," Wimmer said.

"Aircraft like that Russian Su-24 bomber are not that easy to just shoot out of the sky. You need to take aim, and you can only do that with AWACS aircraft."

US & Saudi Arabia 'Involved in Turkey's Downing of Russian Su-24' in Syria

Alexander Mercouris — Why the US Almost Certainly Was Not Involved in the Turkish Coup

All the indications suggest the US had no part in the coup. However Erdogan and the Turkish government think otherwise and it is their opinion which matters.…

Before discussing the question it is important to say that the answer so far as Turkey itself is concerned may no longer matter. The conviction appears to be taking hold in Turkey – including amongst some members of its government and with Erdogan himself – that the US was in some way behind the coup. That in itself will be enough to cause relations between the US and Turkey to become strained. In international politics very often it is what people believe rather than what is true that most matters.

The first thing to say is that at this stage we simply do not know. The information that would enable us to say for sure is simply not there. The investigation of the coup is still at a very early stage. Coup plotters are still being rounded up and questioned, and paper and electronic trails are still being followed up. It will take months or even years before trials follow – if they ever do – and before we start to get definite answers to the questions like the one about the extent, if any, of US involvement in the coup. 

The second thing to say is that when people talk about a coup or a coup being US backed they are using a blanket term that covers different things. There are coups in which the US is not initially involved but which it backs after they succeed (eg. the coup which overthrew the Argentinian dictator Juan Peron in 1955). There are coups of which the US has foreknowledge and to which it gives the green light (eg. the Vietnamese coup against President Diem of 1963, the Brazilian coup of 1964 and the Turkish coup of 1980); and lastly there are the coups which the US actively orders and organises (eg. the coup in Iran in 1953 and – despite continued US denials – the coup against President Allende of Chile in 1973). All these coups are in a sense “US backed” but they clearly fall into different categories. 

There is no doubt that if the coup against Erdogan had succeeded the US would have backed it after the event, just as in 1955 it backed after the event the coup that overthrew Peron, and to that extent it is legitimate to say that if the coup had succeeded it would have been US backed.…

Before leaving this subject there are two further points I do however want to make.
The first is that my whole case obviously depends on the assumption of at least a measure of rationality on the part of Obama and his officials. Against that I have to accept that US policy in recent years has become increasingly detached from reality. Indeed I have written about this at length. However if US policy makers really are now so detached from reality that they took the frankly crazy step of instigating or colluding in a coup against Erdogan in Turkey, then they are much crazier and more dangerous, and the situation in the world is far worse and far more dangerous, than up to now I or I suspect anyone else has suspected. It really would be a case in that case of us needing to reach for our fallout shelters. Fortunately everything we know about the coup suggests otherwise.

The Duran

Why the US Almost Certainly Was Not Involved in the Turkish Coup
Alexander Mercouris

RT — Former NATO commander ‘behind failed coup against Erdogan’ – Turkish daily

Washington calls the charge "unsubstantiated."

RT

Former NATO commander ‘behind failed coup against Erdogan’ – Turkish daily

Dani Rodrik — Is Fethullah Gülen behind Turkey's coup?

Dani Rodrik is Turkish and well acquainted with Turkish politics. The origin of the coup is still murky. It is pretty clear that it was not a false flag engineered by Erdogan to seize more power, but unfolding events reveal that he is not letting the crisis go to waste in that regard either.

The aftermath of the coup has seen the rapprochement of Turkey, Russia and Iran, all of whom have an interest in keeping Syria in one piece, where it is in the interest of the US and the Kurds to partition Syria. 

Dani Rodrik's weblog
Is Fethullah Gülen behind Turkey's coup?
Dani Rodrik

Also

The Duran
Alexander Mercouris: Report of a Russian Tip-Off to Erdogan is True

Pepe Escobar — Hell Hath No Fury Like a Teflon Sultan

Pepe Escobar analyzes the Turkish coup.

Sputnik
Hell Hath No Fury Like a Teflon Sultan

Pepe Escobar

Alexander Mercouris — Turkey: Anatomy of the Coup

The coup was an internal revolt by the entire military which was defeated because of Erdogan's popular support.

The Duran
Turkey: Anatomy of the Coup
Alexander Mercouris

Pat Lang — The "coup" was a fraud?"

False flag?

Sic Semper Tyrannis
The "coup" was a fraud?"
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency